Slim Harpo, Dr. John the Night Tripper, Tony Joe White ? one can't help but flash on those illustrious practitioners of swamp music, be it blues, rock, or pop, when listening to CC Adcock's latest effort. As with all of th... more »e above, Layayette, Louisiana's Adcock makes music that's dense, damp, and malodorous as a Baton Rouge bog. What's so welcome about Lafayette Marquis it that it arrives decades after the heyday of the Excello sound and the rock & roll offspring it inspired, and long after the genre needed a shot in the arm. From the rhythmic opener "Y'all'd Think She'd Be Good 2 Me" through the voodoo creep "Slanoshotz N' Boom-R-Angz" and the gently rolling closer "Between the Lies," Adcock is at home with swamp sounds as a bayou trapper. It helps that he has the connections and inclination to enlist a few savvy vets to help out, including the late producer Jack Nitzsche (the reverberating "Stealin' All Day" is the last track he helmed), but it's pretty clear that Adcock is right at home with these grooves. --Steven Stolder« less
Slim Harpo, Dr. John the Night Tripper, Tony Joe White ? one can't help but flash on those illustrious practitioners of swamp music, be it blues, rock, or pop, when listening to CC Adcock's latest effort. As with all of the above, Layayette, Louisiana's Adcock makes music that's dense, damp, and malodorous as a Baton Rouge bog. What's so welcome about Lafayette Marquis it that it arrives decades after the heyday of the Excello sound and the rock & roll offspring it inspired, and long after the genre needed a shot in the arm. From the rhythmic opener "Y'all'd Think She'd Be Good 2 Me" through the voodoo creep "Slanoshotz N' Boom-R-Angz" and the gently rolling closer "Between the Lies," Adcock is at home with swamp sounds as a bayou trapper. It helps that he has the connections and inclination to enlist a few savvy vets to help out, including the late producer Jack Nitzsche (the reverberating "Stealin' All Day" is the last track he helmed), but it's pretty clear that Adcock is right at home with these grooves. --Steven Stolder
Sound/Word Enthusiast | Rhode Island, USA | 10/30/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The last C.C. album saw him trying to be many things at once, most disapointingly a Cajun-flavored Stevie Ray Vaughn. As anyone who has heard the albums he produced for Cajun visionaries Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys (an incredibly forward-thinking band who would be ranked up there with Radiohead and Steve Earle if their own Cajun roots didn't marginalize them to mainstream listeners), C.C. is something of a maverick, with one foot in Louisiana and one in cyberspace. Here he is in full flight, perverting and distorting classic swamp pop grooves and even some early Cajun-sounding stuff into a funhouse hall of mirrors of roots reinvention. Even the most pedestrian boogie licks are dismantled and reassembled into intriguing new tapestries. Don't miss out on this one..."
Swamp rock deluxe
twangmon | Nashville, TN USA | 12/24/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"With his snarling, gritty guitar tones, swampy grooves, and scratchy vocals, C.C. Adcock makes butt-shakin' music that blends rockabilly, old-school Memphis R&B, New Orleans funk, Cajun dancehall tunes, and juke-joint blues. He's young, but no poseur: Having paid dues with Bo Diddley and Buckwheat Zydeco, Adcock knows rootsy textures like the back of his hand. But despite the tremolo guitar and slapped upright bass, this isn't a retro-sounding record. Adcock and his various producers bring a hip sonic edge to the music that keeps the moods fresh and the vibe ominous. Doyle Bramhall joins Adcock on two songs, and together they raise 6-string hell. Boasting richly layered guitars and heaps of attitude, Adcock's music is soulful, somewhat twisted, and deeply satisfying."
Make that SIX stars...
John M Flora | Brookland, AR United States | 02/28/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Just when I'd all but given up on finding new music to like, I heard C.C. Adcock's "Stealin'All Day" on my XM satellite radio. I put his "Lafayette Marquis" CD on my Amazon.com Christmas wish list, but nobody bought it for me.
Then, last week, I heard Adcock interviewed on XMPR's Bob Edwards Show, listened to other tracks on the album and immediately ordered a copy.
I can't stop listening to it - well, maybe long enough to write this, but it's going in the background.
I've always had a weakness for Louisiana-style music - Cajun, Zydeco, creole, you name it. I'm old enough to have bought Dr. John's first album (the voodoo-rock "Gris Gris") when it was new and still listen to it every month or so.
Adcock, who has played with Bo Diddley and Buckwheat Zydeco, is a huge talent and the album is an absolute delight.
In a world of watered-down pop and derivitive rock, Adcock's music is potent, original, delightfully swampy and a helluva lot of fun.
I'd write more, but I want to e-mail some friends about this album."
The most sophisticated 'swamp music' ever made
Jesse Kornbluth | New York | 09/21/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This CD smokes. It's got a lewd, hip-shaking boogie-beat, atmosphere thicker than Louisiana fog, production that emphasizes the beat, molasses-thick lyrics that don't aspire to profundity --- yeah, "Lafayette Marquis" is the good times music you've been looking for. The late-night alternative to Bryan Ferry or Barry White. The worthy successor to Dr. John, Z.Z. Top and John Fogarty.
C.C. Adcock hails --- that's the word for guys like this --- from Lafayette, Louisiana. That's Cajun country, west of Baton Rouge. Average rainfall: 61 inches a year. On rainy days in his childhood, little Charlie Adcock learned to play guitar. By 14, he had a band --- Boogie Chillun' --- that he remembers as "a rhythm and blues Menudo." He played with Bo Diddley and toured with Buckwheat Zydeco. Good connections got him a record deal, and a much-praised first CD.
A decade passed, and now we have "Lafayette Marquis." Well, he is a nobleman --- at least in his clothes. He likes custom-made suits and expensive shoes (the reptilian pattern on the CD cover is from his boots). But when he talks about his songs, he's no gent. One song, for him, is "a score to a cock-fighting scene --- it's about a couple of oilfield, renegade, ruffneck podnuhs of mine."
How fun a guy is C.C. Adcock? Listen to him talk about his home town: "On any given night, you can start out in the country with some food, drop in to a Cajun dance hall and watch the old folks glidin' round the floor, then put the top down and jump back into town and rock around to the new sounds of some up-and-coming-cats. Then, you can cross the tracks and bump at a Zydeco disco, have a few Crown & Sevens and -- at the end of the night -- head south to another Parish where they stay open all night, and you can boogie `til daybreak in front of a classic swamp-pop jukebox and still make it home in time for Mass. And that's not even a fairy tale night."
This CD is like the souvenir of such a night. A monster of a car --- an old Mercury with a sleek V-8 under the hood. A VFW hall you almost can't see through the foggy night. Women in cotton dresses, men in jeans. Beer in bottles. And on stage, a powerhouse band, playing tight songs about loose females. A crazy fiddler gives the boogie some Cajun twang. The drum sounds hollow as a barrel. The bass player drives the beat like a steam engine. And above it, C.C. sings lyrics that are family-friendly only because they're too slurred to hear.
Get the party started."
ENUFF SAID (not!)
funkeegrisgris | san francisco, california | 02/07/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"THIS YOUNG MAN IS BAD AZZZ
shades of coco robicheaux, dr john, anders osborne, early dr john etc